Prevent Drilling by Anadarko in Loyalsock State Forest

The Clarence Moore lands are 25,621 acres of “split estate” lands in the Loyalsock State Forest where

the surface rights are owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the oil and gas rights are

owned by two private parties – an affiliate of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Anadarko) and a private company called International Development Corporation (IDC).

The Clarence Moore lands have become controversial because Anadarko wants to drill gas wells on them (and build compressor stations, water impoundments, pipelines, and new roads. Because of the ecological and recreational sensitivity of the Clarence Moore lands, PA’s conservation community (and much of the general public) wants the DCNR to use its substantial powers to minimize surface activities, if not prevent them altogether.

The Clarence Moore lands include the Old Loggers Path (an acclaimed 27-mile hiking trail that follows former logging trails and opens onto stunning vistas, most of the watershed of Rock Run, an Exceptional Value (EV) stream widely hailed as the most beautiful stream in Pennsylvania. The headwaters of Rock Run and Pleasant Stream, another EV stream, provide habitat for several threatened or endangered plant and animal species.

The Clarence Moore lands are one of only a few large public land areas in north-central PA that have not been opened to gas development, and still contain relatively unfragmented forests. The DCNR has already leased almost 21,000 other acres of Loyalsock (the forest is around 114,000 acres in all), and has also leased much of the Tiadaghton State Forest to the west and the Tioga State Forest to the north.

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